Day One Wrap

01 August 2013

U16 WOMEN DIVISION B

Yuli Grossman and Israel edged Sloveniaon the opening day in Matosinhos

After their respective relegations last summer, England, Germany and Serbia all got off to winning starts at the U16 European Championship Women Division B in Matosinhos as they start their bid to return to the top tier.

England had to work hardest to spark their promotion campaign, taking a narrow 58-55 success against Romania. Jessica Davies was the game winner, with 10 points and 16 rebounds, as well as sunk the free-throws which got her team over the finishing line.

Andreea Arsulesi missed out on a double-double for Romania by one board, having chalked 16 points.

Germany completed an 88-38 rout of Ireland with Patricia Brossmann unstoppable en-route to the victory, recording 21 points from a stellar 10-of-12 floor shooting. And, with team-mate Leonia Schutter producing an all-action line of 17 points, nine rebounds, six steals and three assists, Ireland were always struggling to contain their opponents.

Serbia won just as convincingly with a 72-41 triumph against Ukraine who couldn't handle the pressure and spilled the ball 24 times with Jovana Subasic, Aleksandra Katanic and Jovana Nogic grabbing a combined 15 steals.

Also in Group A, Norway are still searching for their first success at the tournament, after being defeated 72-25 by Switzerland and having lost all seven games last year on their Division B debut.

There was a dearth of three-balls in the match-up between Estonia and Poland, with both teams stone-cold from downtown and collectively going 0-of-23 from long-range, as the latter took a 55-43 win on opening day in Group D.

In the same pool, Slovenia were edged out 59-53 by Israel after committing an eyebrow raising 30 turnovers.

There was a similar struggle from distance in the game between Luxembourg and Finland with Luxembourg surviving a late scare to grind out a nail-biting 48-45 win.

They were 1-of-12 from the perimeter, whilst Finland were an eye-watering 2-of-29 although almost won the game after getting to within a point in crunch time having trailed by eight with less than four minutes remaining. But Lisa Jablonowski produced a top display, sinking the winning basket and getting 14 points, nine rebounds and six steals.

Finally, there was joy for the locals after home favourites Portugal claimed an 83-35 win against Denmark in Group C, facilitated by a powerful 19-8 start.

They also had two terrific displays by Maria Kostourkova who had a mammoth 30 points and 15 rebounds, whilst Chelsea Guimaraes added 19 points and 16 boards to get the hosts off to a winning start.